Aggressive red tailed shark

[crazy4fids]

I have a single red tailed shark in my 90 gallon community. I know they can be territorial and aggressive towards similar fish. This guy seems to be out of control and needs anger management! He is especially nasty at mealtime. He will aggressively pursue angelfish, keyholes and the larger tetras. He leaves the zebra loaches and cories alone, which I think is strange because they compete for the same territory.
Will this continue and get worse? I have never had one of these guys so mean before.[emoji20]

 

[Coursair]

Does he have multiple hiding spots ?

Can you target feed him first ?

Plant more to make sight breaks ?


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[evil Nick]

I have a rainbow shark and he will chase off my smaller fish at times and notoriously chase my flying fox but he doesnt nip or anything.
I hear that red tails are much more aggressive than rainbows though.

You could try planting more and even rearranging the tank time to time to cull him down and make him/her think its new territory and get slightly less aggressive for a bit.
It goes after your angel? Thats a ballsy fish

 

[crazy4fids]

He doesn't seen to be selective. I am getting ready to plant my tank so I will add extra places to hide and stake out territory. I'm just concerned about somone getting hurt.

 

[Luananeko]

Depending on the particular fish's personality and the tank layout, Red Tails can either be ornery hermits or absolute terrors of the tank. Can you post a picture of your tank? Without seeing a picture, it sounds like your shark doesn't have a hiding place to stake out as it's own. It's generally best to have extra hidey holes so they have some choices to claim from.

Another thought... How old is the shark? They do go through a teenager phase where they tend to raise heck for a while before settling into ornery hermit mode. I've had my Red Tail for several years now, all the way from when it was a baby. It was super friendly while young, then went full brat mode while swapping between 3 different hidey holes, and now has settled down into cantankerous "get off my lawn" type old person that only guards the one tree stump it settled on. It generally ignores my other fish (including my angels) now.

 

[crazy4fids]

We hav had this guy since he was a tiny shark, probably about 2.5 inches. I think my husband is feeding him jelly doughnuts while I am at work. He seems to be a healthy plump.

 

[crazy4fids]

The piece of wood actually has 3 legs on it and there is a pretty good swim through hole as well as a knot hole that goes up to the top.

 

[crazy4fids]

The piece of wood actually has four legs to it. Three exits and one separate swim through. There is also a knot hole that goes up to the top of the piece of wood. I see the zebra loaches in there all the time. This may be a better picture. I think there is less glare.

 

[Luananeko]

That's a really cool piece of driftwood! But sadly with just the one piece it means your shark doesn't really have his own place away from everyone when he wants peace and quiet. I would wager that that's the reason why he's being such a pain to everyone.

 

[crazy4fids]

I will add another hideaway for the bottom troop!

 

[Coursair]

The ones I've seen doing well are usually in longer tanks with the RTS in his cave at one end.

That tank looks too busy for him ? And the log takes up the whole tank? So he defends all around it ?

I don't know. 90g is a nice size tank. But RTS are not always great tank mates.


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[Luananeko]

The ones I've seen doing well are usually in longer tanks with the RTS in his cave at one end.

Exactly, that's the case in my 75g as well. This allows the shark to have a nice quiet corner that everyone can leave him alone in.

For reference, this is the tree trunk ornament that mine really likes:

I normally prefer real driftwood, but finding real driftwood with a nice open but sheltered hollow in the center can be pretty challenging. My shark chose this over the real driftwood in my tank.